Caching data for offline display and navigation of auxiliary information

• US 20050243020A1
• Filed: 05/03/2004
• Published: 11/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Fuller, Andrew J., Rhoten, Matthew P., Perez, Juan, Steeb, Curt A., Drake, Stephen R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,577,771 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/1.300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1423 controlling a plurality of local displays, e.g. CRT and flat panel display
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/022 in absence of operation, e.g. no data being entered during a predetermined time

Abstract

Described is a system and system by which application programs provide data to auxiliary display device (that is associated with a main computer system) for display, including at times when the main computer system is powered down. The cache maintains the user data in association with structured navigational information, to allow navigation within the data via the structure. When online, the main computer system prepares the data cache from program data in combination with navigational information, and transfers the cache to an offline medium such as auxiliary storage in firmware. The cache may be arranged as a tree structure, such that navigation commands result in output according to data in the tree. Other events such as time-based events can change the auxiliary device output.

Claims

1. In a computing environment having a computer system, a system comprising:

an auxiliary device configured to present auxiliary information, at least some of the auxiliary information provided by the computer system;

an auxiliary device service that runs on the computer system, the auxiliary device service configured to receive from computer programs data related to presenting information on the auxiliary device, and further configured to structure the data in a cache for subsequent navigation of the data; and

wherein the auxiliary device receives a navigation command and accesses the cache to determine what output data to present on the auxiliary device based on the navigation command.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the cache contains application program data, and wherein the auxiliary device presents at least some of the application program data when the computer system is in a powered down state.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the cache contains a reference to application program data in a main memory of the computer system, and wherein the auxiliary device presents at least some of the application program data by obtaining the application program data via the reference when the computer system is powered-up state.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the cache is accessed via a shell program.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the cache contains information that structures the program data as a tree.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the cache is accessed via a shell program and wherein the shell program presents a home page corresponding to a root of the tree.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the auxiliary device service determines whether to reduce the amount of data received for caching based on available storage space in the cache.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the auxiliary device is physically connected to a housing of the computer system.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the auxiliary device is remotely coupled to the computer system.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the cache is stored on a storage medium that is physically separate from the computer system, and wherein the auxiliary device is remotely coupled to the computer system via access to the cache.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the auxiliary device further receives a time-based event, and in response accesses auxiliary storage to determine what output data to present on the auxiliary device based on the time-based event.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the data to present is maintained in the cache.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the cache contains at least one bitmap for presenting on the auxiliary device.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the cache contains data that when interpreted creates an image for rendering on the auxiliary device.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein providing the auxiliary device with access to the cache comprises transferring the cache to auxiliary storage from a main computer system prior to powering down the main computer system.

8. (canceled)

16. In a computing environment, a method comprising:

receiving computer program data;

combining the computer program data with navigation information that determines how the computer program data relates to other computer program data for navigation via an auxiliary device; and

caching, in a cache, the computer program data with the other computer program data and the navigation information; and

providing the auxiliary device with access to the cache.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising, receiving a navigation command at the auxiliary device, accessing the cache to determine what output data to present on the auxiliary device based on the navigation command, and presenting the data on the auxiliary device.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein providing the auxiliary device with access to the cache comprises transferring the cache from a main computer system to a storage medium that is physically separate from the main computer system.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein the cache contains program data of a program that runs on a main computer system, and further comprising, presenting the data on the auxiliary device when the main computer system is in a powered down state.

21. The method of claim 16 further comprising accessing the cache via a shell program running in auxiliary firmware.

22. The method of claim 16 wherein combining the computer program data with navigation information comprises representing the computer program data in a tree structure.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising outputting a home page from a shell program running in auxiliary firmware, the home page providing a navigation path to at least some of the computer program data in the cache.

24. The method of claim 16 further comprising reducing the amount of received program data based on available storage space in the cache.

25. The method of claim 16 further comprising, receiving an event at the auxiliary device, accessing the cache to determine what output data to present on the auxiliary device based on the event, and presenting the data on the auxiliary device.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the event corresponds to a time based event.

27. The method of claim 25 further comprising, determining that the event corresponds to a particular action that requires accessing the cache.

28. The method of claim 25 wherein the event corresponds to a user input.

29. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions which when executed perform the method of claim 16.

30. In a computing environment, a method comprising:

receiving an event at an auxiliary device;

accessing a cache via the auxiliary device to determine what output data to present on the auxiliary device based on the navigation command; and

presenting the data on the auxiliary device.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein receiving the event at the auxiliary device comprises receiving user input corresponding to a navigation command.

32. The method of claim 30 wherein receiving the event at the auxiliary device comprises receiving a time-based event.

33. The method of claim 30 wherein accessing a cache comprises reading auxiliary storage.

34. The method of claim 30 wherein accessing a cache comprises reading data via the auxiliary device from a storage medium that contains the cache, the storage medium written by a computer system that is not coupled to the auxiliary device at the time of reading the data from the storage medium.

35. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions which when executed perform the method of claim 30.